Attorney for nickname supporters says move was expectedIn its motion for dismissal, the NCAA says the supporters’ claims aren’t supported by facts and that they lack standing to bring the lawsuit. Continue Reading

On Sunday at Hornet Gym, the North Dakota men’s basketball team will play Sacramento State in a non-conference game. If all goes as scheduled, UND will be back next season as a member of the Big Sky Conference.

UND is joining the league next season as part of a Big Sky expansion to 13 teams that includes Southern Utah and UC Davis and Cal Poly in football only. If only it were that easy.

The problem is UND’s entry to the Big Sky hasn’t gone as planned – at all. From its botched entry in the league to its continued controversy over the Fighting Sioux nickname, UND has transitioned into the Big Sky like a child going kicking and screaming.

Which is why the Big Sky Conference needs to say, “No thanks. We made a mistake. Thanks for playing. Go find another conference.” The premier league in the Football Championship Subdivision and a competitive mid-major group in basketball doesn’t need the long road trips and headaches UND will bring.North Dakota was supposed to join with South Dakota as a package deal. It was all set to make the Big Sky a 14-team league, Big Sky Commissioner Doug Fullerton said this fall. However, at the last minute South Dakota got a better offer from a more geographic-friendly league, the Missouri Valley Conference.

That made sense, but the Big Sky, which also wanted UND because of its reputation as a research institute, didn’t withdraw the invite to the Fighting Sioux, which were making the transition from Division II to Division I FCS. The UND regents accepted, making UND the only member of the Big Sky in the Central time zone.

That’s 920 miles from Northern Colorado, the previous eastern-most member, and 821 miles from Bozeman, Mont. Oh, that’s 1,783 miles from Sacramento State, the furthest member from UND.

The presidents were willing to overlook the frequent-flier miles as long as UND took care of their logo issue. That is, North Dakota had to get rid of the “Fighting Sioux” nickname and its accompanying logo.

That was tied to the NCAA’s decision about six years ago to discourage schools using “offensive nicknames” and logos by not allowing those institutions to host postseason tournaments or use those nicknames in NCAA events. Despite a lot of kicking and screaming UND is the last school to comply with ruling.

One of the few schools to skate by the new rule was Florida State, which has its teams called the Seminoles. FSU followed the guidelines and got permission from the Seminole Indian tribe to keep the nickname. Among others, the Utes Nation helped the University of Utah keep its nickname. UND hasn’t been so lucky.

About half of the Sioux tribes have been for the nickname and the other half have been against it. The North Dakota legislature tried to fight the NCAA by passing a law that would make it illegal for UND to change its nickname. The law was repealed this fall, but the fight continues. A North Dakota group is trying to put the nickname change on the next ballot and the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe is making a stink because it claims it is not being heard by the NCAA or the Big Sky.

Also, the Sioux logo will be tough to retire in one North Dakota facility. Ralph Engelstad Arena, named for the donor who paid for the 11,000-seat hockey arena opened 11 years ago, made sure the logo would cost too much to replace. It has been placed in thousands of permanent spots around the arena, from the marble floors to the sides of aisle seats.

The hockey team is not joining the Big Sky, but that shows how entrenched the logo is in the UND culture. And how hard it will be to force that culture to change.

“Whether or not the logo is appropriate or inappropriate – what we worry about is the NCAA had a deal with them and now they were forced to back out of that deal,” Fullerton said before the North Dakota legislature repealed the law. “If they are in violation and the NCAA sanctions remain in place, we’re afraid of what the outcome of those sanctions will create at the University of North Dakota in two ways.”

There has been little word from Fullerton or the Big Sky presidents in recent months, but you have to think this is not what they wanted when they voted UND into the league. The Fighting Sioux nickname is a headache that won’t go away.

The Fighting Sioux logo is one of the most beautiful things in sports if you’ve ever seen it at center ice of the school’s Ralph Engelstad Arena. But it is one of the most offensive in sports, just like the Redmen was hostile at St. John’s and Miami (Ohio) changed from Redskins to Redhawks. Speaking of Redskins, it’s still baffling how pro sports teams Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians still have their nicknames.

Regardless, because of the never-ending drama at North Dakota, UND is on the NCAA’s championship-host ban list. UND has to sell off all of their Fighting Sioux memorabilia and get a new nickname by next summer as part of their entry into the Big Sky. But there seems to be little movement toward changing the name, which should have happened months ago.

That brings us back to why Big Sky needs to turn back UND. This controversy has gone on too long. It’s been embarrassing for the NCAA and it will soon become embarrassing for the Big Sky.

It’s too late to alter the football and other teams to change schedules for 2012-13, but it’s easy to declare all of those games between UND and Big Sky schools as non-conference contests. Then, in preparation for 2013-14, the Big Sky should tell UND it needs to find a new conference.

It’s not that tough. Missouri waited until last month to announce that it was joining the Southeastern Conference for the 2012 football season. By declaring UND’s Big Sky games as non-league contests it would be doing the Fighting Sioux a favor.

Unfortunately, UND has not extended the same courtesy to the Big Sky.

It was a mistake to let UND in the Big Sky in the first place. It’s an even bigger mistake to allow the school in the league when it hasn’t met all of the requirements for joining.

The Big Sky – in a very polite way – needs to separate itself from this UND mess. It’s time to say “thanks, but no thanks” to the Fighting Sioux.

And next season’s Sac State-UND game? It should be just like this season’s matchup, a non-league game.